Session 3: June 18, 2022

Scripture Reading: John 1:6-39

I tried to put together a verse-by-verse explanation of verses 6 through 18. That should create a solid foundation for us to simply read, understand, and enjoy verses 19 to 39.

6 A man came, sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that everyone might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify about the light.

The prologue is emphatic in contrasting John the Baptist and Jesus. Maybe John the Apostle was trying to settle a polemic stirred up by the Baptist’s followers. (The contrast includes testifying about the light versus being the light, water baptism versus spirit baptism, witness versus the messiah.)

“Witness” was a legal term, although it was also used more generally. In the Septuagint, the term often appeals to objective evidence and is associated with controversy imagery. Consider John 5:31-35:

31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies about me, and I know the testimony he testifies about me is true. 33 You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. 34 (I do not accept human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved.) 35 He was a lamp that was burning and shining, and you wanted to rejoice greatly for a short time in his light.

The Baptist came that “everyone” might believe. Who is “everyone”? The context may limit “everyone” to Jewish contemporaries. Or does it refer to the general offer of the Gospel that is set in motion? The Baptist fulfills the role prophesied in Malachi 3:1:

“I am about to send my messenger, who will clear the way before me. Indeed, the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom you long for, is certainly coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Consider the relation between revelation and the witness to revelation. God is revealed by Jesus. Jesus is witnessed by the Baptist and his disciples. Then Jesus becomes invisible again and his witnesses become the community of believers.

9 The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

John the Baptist was a lamp (5:35). Jesus was the light itself. Greek philosophers applied “enlightenment” to the revealing of knowledge; Jewish tradition applied it to the revelation of moral truth (i.e., the Torah and then the Gospel).

Jesus gives light to “everyone.” Who is “everyone”? This may parallel a widespread and early Jewish tradition that God made the Torah available to all nations at a specific time at Mount Sinai (although only Israel accepted the truth).

10 He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him.

Jesus was in the world (present participle). Scholars and many church fathers applied the phrase to various manifestations of the Word previous to the incarnation.

Jesus created the world but the world did not recognize him. The world belongs to Jesus, but the world “did not receive him,” which John uses elsewhere in his gospel to connote deliberate rejection. There seems to be two stages. First, the world does not recognize the Lord as he takes on flesh. However, once the world recognizes the master has come, then the world deliberately rejects Jesus. Or perhaps the world refers to the gentiles and “his own” refers to the Jewish people. The world did not know Jesus, but the Jews rejected Him. Jewish tradition remarked that the Torah had been offered to all nations but only Israel had accepted it. That certainly was not the case with Jesus.

12 But to all who have received him—those who believe in his name—he has given the right to become God’s children—

Craig Keener points out “‘Receiving’ the Jesus of [John’s Gospel] embraces the mystery of God’s power revealed in weakness and submitting to the revealing Lord of the universe regardless of the cost.”

Believing in Jesus’ “name” is probably an allusion to the divine name, which in turn is a stand-in for God. This means that trusting in Jesus implies trusting in him as deity. Throughout John’s gospel we see that Jesus followers are to believe in Jesus’ name, receive life in his name, and expect to suffer for his name.

Greeks may have considered God as a father of humanity by virtue of creation. Jews had a much more intimate conception of God’s fatherhood towards them as the chosen people. Believers in Jesus assume the covenant role granted Israel as a people. Notice believers receive the right (which could also be translated as “authority”)! Believers have the authority to claim something that no human effort could accomplish. That is incredible language.

13 children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband’s decision, but by God.

Consider John 3:1-6:

1 Now a certain man, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council, 2 came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?”

5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Notice the distinction between genetic Israel and children born of God by belief in His Name.

14 Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.

The stoics believed God was not of human shape, the Platonist spoke of an unnamed and unseen intellect, and the Neoplatonist denied that wisdom could be seen through a body. But John states that the Word became flesh—fully. Not in a temporary or partial way.

To take up residence is to “tabernacle”—like God did in the Old Testament. Remember Exodus 25:8:

Let them make for me a sanctuary, so that I may live among them.

Most importantly, consider how John 1:14-18 fulfills Exodus 33-34:

(1)  In Exodus, God gives Torah from Mount Sinai. In John, as prophesied (Isaiah 46:13), the redeemer comes from Zion.

(2)  In Exodus, the Torah is given to the people. In John, the Logos tabernacles among the people.

(3)  In Exodus, Moses beholds God. In John, the eyewitnesses (e.g., John the Baptist and the Disciples) behold Jesus.

The story of Moses, the highest Jewish figure, culminates in the story of Jesus.

As a reminder, here are the relevant portions of Exodus 33-34

Exodus 33

12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have been saying to me, ‘Bring this people up,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. But you said, ‘I know you by name, and also you have found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your way, that I may know you, that I may continue to find favor in your sight. And see that this nation is your people.”

18 And Moses said, “Show me your glory.”

19 And the Lord said, “I will make all my goodness pass before your face, and I will proclaim the LORD by name before you; I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious; I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.” 20 But he added, “You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.” 21 The LORD said, “Here is a place by me; you will station yourself on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and will cover you with my hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen.”

Exodus 34

3 No one is to come up with you; do not let anyone be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks or the herds may graze in front of that mountain.” 4 So Moses cut out two tablets of stone like the first; early in the morning he went up to Mount Sinai, just as the LORD had commanded him, and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.

5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the LORD by name. 6 The LORD passed by before him and proclaimed: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, 7 keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

8 Moses quickly bowed to the ground and worshiped 9 and said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord go among us, for we are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

10 He said, “See, I am going to make a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the LORD, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you.

29 Now when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand—when he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to approach him.

33 When Moses finished speaking with them, he would put a veil on his face. 34 But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. Then he would come out and tell the Israelites what he had been commanded. 35 When the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with the Lord.

What is “glory”? It is a revelation of God’s character. Jesus revealed his glory in ways obscure to the elite but visible to those who believed in Him. Consider 1 Corinthians 1:18:

18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Monogenous (μονογενοῦς) is difficult to translate into English. Some translate it as “one and only” and some as “only begotten.” In the Septuagint and other contemporary Jewish writings, the term applies to an only child but it also applies to other unique things (most significantly, to divine Wisdom). To the extent the term means an only child, it connotes “beloved.” A Jewish family with only one son would depend on him for the preservation of the family. To say someone was an “only son” was to say he was extremely important and beloved. Christians are called God’s children, but Jesus is the special, beloved, one-of-a-kind Son.

15 John testified about him and shouted out, “This one was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than I am, because he existed before me.’”

John’s public ministry preceded Jesus’ ministry, but Jesus outranked John because Jesus preexisted John. Jesus was not a disciple of John—quite the opposite. Indeed, Jesus was greater than Abraham, “I tell you the solemn truth, before Abraham came into existence, I am!” (John 8:58)

16 For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

What does grace and truth mean? Remember Exodus 34. Verse 6 says that “[t]he LORD passed by before [Moses] and proclaimed: ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness . . . .” Grace points us to God’s “loyal love,” which can also be translated as “covenant-love.” As I pointed out above, truth points us to God’s moral truth and faithfulness. When God revealed his grace and truth at Mount Sinai, it was incomplete. Moses only saw part. That revelation becomes complete in Christ. As Craig Keener points out:

“Christ is the full embodiment of Torah, completing what was partial (but actually present) in Torah. Jesus Christ thus embodies the hope of Judaism. John does not encourage his community to forsake its Jewish past, but to recognize that in following Christ, the embodiment of Torah, his community fulfills the highest demands of Judaism.”

Christ is the full embodiment of the law, the actual model of lived-out commandments, in flesh. The contrast between law and Christ is not between something bad and something good, but between something good and something better.

In the first century, “grace” (charis) generally involved a patron-client relation. It involved the giving of an undeserved benefit but also a lasting relationship. Entering into a patron-client relationship was not a light commitment. The client was expected to show respect and gratitude, and the patron was to protect the client’s economic, social, and legal interests.

18 No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.

The Lord told Moses, “You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.” But people beheld Jesus, who was God. Consider what Jesus did, as Philippians 2:6-8 says:

6 who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped,7 but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. 8 He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross!

Moses beheld a part of God’s glory, and Moses’ face shone. Christ is that light itself.

The rest of John’s Gospel maintains the Father’s invisibility but qualifies it, for anyone who has seen the incarnate God who has fully revealed the character of the Father has seen the Father. Although blasphemous to the Jewish audience, John’s claim is that one who saw Jesus saw a fuller picture of God than Moses did. For Jesus to make God known implies more than communicating a visual image; it suggests that Jesus fully interprets God’s character.

The Testimony of John the Baptist

19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed—he did not deny but confessed—“I am not the Christ!” 21 So they asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not!” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No!” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Tell us so that we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

23 John said, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” 24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 So they asked John, “Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26 John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not recognize, 27 who is coming after me. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal!” 28 These things happened in Bethany across the Jordan River where John was baptizing.

29 On the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one about whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is greater than I am, because he existed before me.’ 31 I did not recognize him, but I came baptizing with water so that he could be revealed to Israel.”

32 Then John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. 33 And I did not recognize him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining—this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have both seen and testified that this man is the Chosen One of God.”

35 Again the next day John was standing there with two of his disciples. 36 Gazing at Jesus as he walked by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When John’s two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned around and saw them following and said to them, “What do you want?” So they said to him, “Rabbi” (which is translated Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 Jesus answered, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. Now it was about four o’clock in the afternoon.

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